The 2004 U.S. women's 400-meter relay team was the fastest in the world and the favorite to win the gold in Athens. As the race reached the halfway point, the Americans held a sizeable lead. Then came the hando...

Reflections from 15 Years of Youth Ministry Research Humility is a teacher’s best friend. It’s the deepest character quality of a truly hungry student. Gurus high in the Tibetan mountains get vis...

Last fall I ran into a ministry peer I hadn’t seen for quite some time, although we communicate by phone or e-mail often. “The T.H. thing scared the heck out of me!” he said. I was perplexed. ...

A Plea for Unity in Youth MinistryQuick. What’s your knee-jerk response when you hear the word unity? What do you picture? Working with others to pull off an event? A prayer meeting of local youth workers...

My son, Will, a youth ministry major at Mid-America Christian University, was giving me a tutorial so he could beat me at his latest favorite computer game from www.addict­inggames.com. Across the...

It didn’t take long for Jenna to get my atten­tion after my “I’m Over 40” seminar at a national youth ministry workers convention last year. After an intense month that included a yo...

La Ceiba changed me forever. Nothing has ever opened my eyes more than my Global Village Youth Program trip to La Ceiba, Honduras, in May 2006. I have been involved with Habitat for Humanity for the past five...

During the horrendous first weekend of last November as New Life Church in Colorado Springs reeled from the sudden fall of its senior pastor, Ted Haggard, one of the church’s associate pastors, Rob Brendl...

God spoke to Balaam through a donkey. He got my attention recently while I was watching Jeopardy!, that famous TV game show created 43 years ago after someone asked, What if we had a show where the answers were...

When I graduated from high school back in the late 1980s, my classmates and I were excited about attending a four-year college and then going on to build a career and prove we could do great things. I...